Spatial Externalities in Agriculture: Empirical Analysis, Statistical Identification, and Policy Implications

Spatial externalities can affect economic welfare and landscape pattern by linking farm returns on adjoining parcels of land. While policy can be informed by research that documents spatial externalities, statistically quantifying the presence of externalities from landscape pattern is insufficient for policy guidance unless the underlying cause of the externality can be identified as positive or negative. This article provides a springboard for empirical research by examining the underlying structure, social-environmental interactions, and statistical identification strategies for the analysis and quantification of agricultural spatial externalities that are derived from observations of landscape change. The potential for original policy treatments of agricultural spatial externalities in development and environment outcomes are highlighted.

Assessing social-ecological connectivity of agricultural landscapes in Spain: Resilience implications amid agricultural intensification trends and urbanization

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2022.103525Acknowledgements Funding was provided through the following sources: a Fulbright Flex grant of the US-Spain Fulbright Commission that supported the first author’s main component of field research beginning in 2017 with funding for related research in 2018 and 2019; the 3-year E. Willard and Ruby S. Miller Professorship of Environment and Society Geography and Penn State's Department of Geography (2019-2022); the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, National Project I+D+i 2019, “Multifunctional and territorialized agri-food systems in Spain. Conceptualisation and governance. Analysis of cases in Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha,” ID2019-105711RB-C61/AEI/10.13039/501 100011033; the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the FEDER funds from the Spanish Pluriregional Operational Program 2014–2020 (POPE), LifeWatch-ERIC action line, with co-financing by the Provincial Council of Granada, for the project “Thematic Center on Mountain Ecosystem & Remote sensing, Deep learning-AI e-Services University of Granada-Sierra Nevada” (LifeWatch-2019-10-UGR-01); and ERDF/Ministry of Science and Innovation–State Research Agency for the project “Researching how to integrate sustainability and competitiveness in Agrifood Mediterranean Landscapes: Agrobiodiversity, climate change and local development” (AGROFOODSCAPES)" (PID2020-117198RB-I00). Initial versions of this work were presented to the Department of Geography at the Autonomous University of Madrid/ Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in 2017 and the Institute of Regional Development at the University of Granada/Universidad de Granada in 2018. The support of both these institutions, their collaborative institutional networks, and their faculty, students, and staff are gratefully acknowledged. Additional feedback occurred in the first author’s keynote addresses to the Permanent European Conference on Sustainable Rural Landscapes (PECSRL) in Jaén, Spain, in 2021 and 2022. Insights and support before and during the 2017-2019 period, which are gratefully acknowledged, were offered by Darla Munroe, William Doolittle, Medora D. Ebersole, Tobias Plieninger, María Garcia Martin, Claudia Bieling, Carlos Barahona, Sam Dumble, José Pepe Gonzalez, César López Santiago, Carlos Montes, Irene Iniesta-Arandia, and Samir Sayadi. Numerous research and practitioner colleagues and partners, the members of the GeoSyntheSES Lab at Penn State, and the reviewers and editors of the journal provided helpful inputs that have been incorporated.CONTEXT Accelerated intensification/disintensification and urbanization are changing agricultural systems and propel the need for spatial approaches to understand sustainability-enhancing resilience. Landscapes are key to this understanding though little is known of the broad-scale, cross-landscape connectivity of social-ecological factors amid changing agricultural systems. OBJECTIVE This study's goals are to identify broad-scale types of agricultural landscapes in Spain that are associated with intensification/disintensification and urbanization and then to use case studies to assess the types and extent of cross-landscape connectivity. It examines the social-ecological connectivity of environmental resources, resource users, and governance. The overarching purpose is to improve the understanding of social-ecological connectivity in strengthening the sustainability-enhancing resilience of agricultural landscapes amid global agri-food changes. METHODS To pursue these goals, we conducted a structured literature review of publications to identify major types of agricultural landscapes in Spain that reflect intensification/disintensification and urbanization trends. Case studies of agricultural landscapes and connectivity were undertaken in the Madrid and Granada regions. These case studies used a structured interview with experienced professional experts in fields of social-ecological sustainability and agricultural landscapes in each region. Analyses including Latent Block Modelling were applied to interview results on types and extent of cross-landscape connectivity in both conventional and alternative agriculture. RESULTS and CONCLUSIONS The structured literature review identified the predominance of three types of broad-scale agricultural landscapes in Spain: intensive, “traditional” rural, and peri-urban/urban. Analysis of case-study results revealed variation of the extent and structure of connectivity among clusters of landscape interactions and social-ecological factors. Landscape-level connectivity created both negative agricultural impacts (e.g., extensive water transfers and nutrient pollution in conventional agriculture) and positive impacts (e.g., knowledge system and seed exchanges in alternative agriculture). Interactions of alternative agricultural systems in peri-urban/urban and “traditional” rural landscapes have benefitted from cross-landscape connectivity amid accelerated agricultural change. SIGNIFICANCE Research and policy on the landscape-level connectivity of agricultural systems are needed to strengthen sustainability-enhancing resilience of both conventional and alternative agriculture. This study's approach and results are a strategic complement to existing emphasis on within-landscape cycles of social-ecological factors in alternative agriculture. This study's insights are important in the transition phases of alternative agriculture and associated food systems amid changes due to agricultural intensification/disintensification and urbanization. Understanding selective cross-landscape connectivity is important for spatial approaches to strengthen the sustainability-enhancing resilience of agricultural systems.Fulbright Flex grant of the US-Spain Fulbright CommissionPenn State's Department of Geography 2019-2022Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, National Project I+D+i 2019, “Multifunctional and territorialized agri-food systems in Spain. Conceptualisation and governance. Analysis of cases in Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha,” ID2019-105711RB-C61/AEI/10.13039/501 100011033Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the FEDER funds from the Spanish Pluriregional Operational Program 2014–2020 (POPE)LifeWatch-ERIC action line, with co-financing by the Provincial Council of Granada, for the project “Thematic Center on Mountain Ecosystem & Remote sensing, Deep learning-AI e-Services University of Granada-Sierra Nevada” (LifeWatch-2019-10-UGR-01)ERDF/Ministry of Science and Innovation–State Research Agency for the project “Researching how to integrate sustainability and competitiveness in Agrifood Mediterranean Landscapes: Agrobiodiversity, climate change and local development” (AGROFOODSCAPES)" (PID2020-117198RB-I00)Universidad Autónoma de MadridUniversidad de Granad

Agrobiodiversity and a sustainable food future

Peer Revie

Agri-Food Land Transformations and Immigrant Farm Workers in Peri-Urban Areas of Spain and the Mediterranean

Spain is a global hotspot of transformations of agri-food land systems due to changing production intensity, diets, urbanization, market integration, and climate change. Characteristic of the Mediterranean, these expanding intersections with the migration, livelihoods, and food security strategies of immigrant farm workers urge new research into the “who,” “how,” and “why” questions of the transformation of agri-food land systems. Addressing this gap, we communicate preliminary results from field research in the Granada and Madrid areas. We use a novel conceptual framework of linkages among distinct agri-food land systems and the roles and agency of immigrant farm workers. Preliminary results integrating a combined land- and labor-centric approach address: (1) how the recent and ongoing transformations of specific agri-food land systems are indicative of close links to inexpensive, flexible labor of immigrant farm workers; (2) how the connectivity among transformations of multiple distinct agri-food land systems can be related to the geographic mobility of immigrant farm workers and livelihoods (non-farm work, gendered employment, peri-urban residential location, labor recruitment); and (3) how the struggles for food and nutrition security among immigrant farm workers are indicative of links to local sites and networked agrobiodiversity. This study can help advance the nexus of migration-land research with expanding ethical, justice, and policy concerns of land system sciences in relation to the new suite of agri-food interest and initiatives.Fulbright Scholarship BoardBureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in Spain and the U.S

First experiences with a novel farmer citizen science approach: crowdsourcing participatory variety selection through on-farm triadic comparisons of technologies (TRICOT)

Rapid climatic and socio-economic changes challenge current agricultural R&D capacity. The necessary quantum leap in knowledge generation should build on the innovation capacity of farmers themselves. A novel citizen science methodology, triadic comparisons of technologies or tricot, was implemented in pilot studies in India, East Africa, and Central America. The methodology involves distributing a pool of agricultural technologies in different combinations of three to individual farmers who observe these technologies under farm conditions and compare their performance. Since the combinations of three technologies overlap, statistical methods can piece together the overall performance ranking of the complete pool of technologies. The tricot approach affords wide scaling, as the distribution of trial packages and instruction sessions is relatively easy to execute, farmers do not need to be organized in collaborative groups, and feedback is easy to collect, even by phone. The tricot approach provides interpretable, meaningful results and was widely accepted by farmers. The methodology underwent improvement in data input formats. A number of methodological issues remain: integrating environmental analysis, capturing gender-specific differences, stimulating farmers' motivation, and supporting implementation with an integrated digital platform. Future studies should apply the tricot approach to a wider range of technologies, quantify its potential contribution to climate adaptation, and embed the approach in appropriate institutions and business models, empowering participants and democratizing science

Farm-Level Agricultural Biodiversity in the Peruvian Andes Is Associated with Greater Odds of Women Achieving a Minimally Diverse and Micronutrient Adequate Diet

Abstract Background The extent to and mechanisms by which agricultural biodiversity may influence diet diversity and quality among women are not well understood. Objectives We aimed to 1) determine the association of farm-level agricultural biodiversity with diet diversity and quality among women of reproductive age in Peru and 2) determine the extent to which farm market orientation mediates or moderates this association. Methods We surveyed 600 households with the use of stratified random sampling across 3 study landscapes in the Peruvian Andes with diverse agroecological and market conditions. Diet diversity and quality among women were assessed by using quantitative 24-h dietary recalls with repeat recalls among 100 randomly selected women. We calculated a 10-food group diet diversity score (DDS), the Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDD-W) indicator, probability of adequacy (PA) of 9 micronutrients by using a measurement-error model approach, and mean PA (MPA; mean of PAs for all nutrients). Agricultural biodiversity was defined as a count of crop species cultivated by the household during the 2016–2017 agricultural season. Results In regression analyses adjusting for sociodemographic and agricultural characteristics, farm-level agricultural biodiversity was associated with a higher DDS (incidence rate ratio from Poisson regression: 1.03; P 60%: OR: 1.21; 95% CI: 1.10, 1.35). Farm market orientation did not consistently moderate these associations, and in path analyses we observed no consistent evidence of mediation of these associations by farm market orientation. Conclusions Farm-level agricultural biodiversity was associated with moderately more diverse and more micronutrient-adequate diets among Peruvian women. This association was consistent across farms with varying levels of market orientation, although agricultural biodiversity likely contributed to diets principally through subsistence consumption

FIRST EXPERIENCES WITH A NOVEL FARMER CITIZEN SCIENCE APPROACH: CROWDSOURCING PARTICIPATORY VARIETY SELECTION THROUGH ON-FARM TRIADIC COMPARISONS OF TECHNOLOGIES (TRICOT)

SUMMARYRapid climatic and socio-economic changes challenge current agricultural R&D capacity. The necessary quantum leap in knowledge generation should build on the innovation capacity of farmers themselves. A novel citizen science methodology, triadic comparisons of technologies or tricot, was implemented in pilot studies in India, East Africa, and Central America. The methodology involves distributing a pool of agricultural technologies in different combinations of three to individual farmers who observe these technologies under farm conditions and compare their performance. Since the combinations of three technologies overlap, statistical methods can piece together the overall performance ranking of the complete pool of technologies. The tricot approach affords wide scaling, as the distribution of trial packages and instruction sessions is relatively easy to execute, farmers do not need to be organized in collaborative groups, and feedback is easy to collect, even by phone. The tricot approach provides interpretable, meaningful results and was widely accepted by farmers. The methodology underwent improvement in data input formats. A number of methodological issues remain: integrating environmental analysis, capturing gender-specific differences, stimulating farmers' motivation, and supporting implementation with an integrated digital platform. Future studies should apply the tricot approach to a wider range of technologies, quantify its potential contribution to climate adaptation, and embed the approach in appropriate institutions and business models, empowering participants and democratizing science

The Biodiversity of Food and Agriculture (Agrobiodiversity) in the Anthropocene: Research Advances and a Conceptual Framework

Multiple knowledge systems are crucial to understand human-environment interactions of the biodiversity of agriculture and food systems (agrobiodiversity). This article synthesizes these knowledge systems to formulate the novel Agrobiodiversity Knowledge Framework comprised of four themes: (1) ecology and evolution; (2) governance; (3) food, nutrition, and health; and (4) global environmental and socioeconomic changes. Resulting characterization of these knowledge themes, joined with cross-theme integration, demonstrate advances of agrobiodiversity research, management, and policy amid the accelerated global environmental and socioeconomic transformations of the Anthropocene. Framework results guide the presentation of new data from the Agrobiodiversity, Food, and Nutrition project (AFN) in Peru. These results integrate an emphasis on factors of global change, including climate change. The combination of the new knowledge framework and project results is utilized to point toward future directions for research, policy, and management. The Agrobiodiversity Knowledge Framework is essential to address the transformative planetary challenges of the Anthropocene that include sustainable development with nutritional security, biodiversity conservation, social justice, climate change, and nutrient pollution. Strengthening the focus on and analysis of the complex human-environment interactions of biodiversity in agriculture and food is vital as a nexus of science, scholarship, management, and policy in the era of Earth systems dominated by human activity

Landscape science: a Russian geographical tradition

The Russian geographical tradition of landscape science (landshaftovedenie) is analyzed with particular reference to its initiator, Lev Semenovich Berg (1876-1950). The differences between prevailing Russian and Western concepts of landscape in geography are discussed, and their common origins in German geographical thought in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are delineated. It is argued that the principal differences are accounted for by a number of factors, of which Russia's own distinctive tradition in environmental science deriving from the work of V. V. Dokuchaev (1846-1903), the activities of certain key individuals (such as Berg and C. O. Sauer), and the very different social and political circumstances in different parts of the world appear to be the most significant. At the same time it is noted that neither in Russia nor in the West have geographers succeeded in specifying an agreed and unproblematic understanding of landscape, or more broadly in promoting a common geographical conception of human-environment relationships. In light of such uncertainties, the latter part of the article argues for closer international links between the variant landscape traditions in geography as an important contribution to the quest for sustainability